56 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Worming Puppies. 



of use to cut them : I also spay such bitches (says he) as 

 I think I shall not want to breed from ; they are more 

 useful, are stouter, and are always in better order : be- 

 sides it is absolutely necessary, if you hunt late in the 

 spring ; or your pack will be very short for want of it. It 

 may be right to tell you, that the latter operation does not 

 always succeed ; it will be necessary therefore to employ 

 a skilful person, and one on whom you can depend ; for 

 if it is ill done, though they cannot have puppies, they 

 will go to heat notwithstanding." 



I must confess I am no strenuous advocate for the 

 practise of reducing hounds to the tieuter gender, or at 

 least depriving them of the power of procreation ; nor 

 can I help thinking, that, with the loss of this power, 

 hounds suffer a diminution of strength also — they are 

 certainly more easily kept in condition ; in fact, they are 

 apt to become too fat. If, however, it be determined to 

 resort to spaying, it is advisable to have the operation 

 performed at an early period, when the iuiimal is only a 

 few months old, for instance. 



Worming puppies is a ridiculous operation ; — it will 

 not have the effect, which is erroneously attributed to it, 

 namely, of rendering the animal incapable of biting when 

 labouring under paroxysms of hydrophobia How it ever 

 could be supposed that extracting a sinew which runs 

 longitudinally under a dog's tongue Avould have the above 

 effect, is a matter of surprise ; and I blush at my own 

 thoughtlessness in adopting in several instances the fool- 

 ish idea, the offspring of ignorance, cind putting an animal 

 to pain, where no possible benefit could ever be reason- 

 ably expected. 



